a house of her own
Dear Fisher,
My name is Cory and I have this frequent impulse to scratch the furniture at the house I live in. My human gets pretty mad at me. She even went so far as to get me my own little house, complete with scratching carpet. Well, that didn’t really work, but I included the picture anyway, ’cause it’s pretty cute..
I still go around the house, but mostly during the night, and visit my old scratching places in “her” house. She is pretty mad at me. Help!
Cory
Dear Cory,
First of all, your human made a conscious decision not to do away with your claws because she feels it is an abhorrent procedure and did not want to put you through that. At the same time, she is probably well aware of the scratching-the-furniture needs cats seem to have. Hence your own little house! I would say that is double lucky. However, things may look different to her now that you have exercised cat ignoring to the nth degree.
Cats scratch for various reasons. Glands between your toes give off a secretion with a distinctive odor to you. You just signed your name to that sofa. Cats are at home just about anywhere once they cordon off their own happy places. It really is a natural response to furniture in the house.
Sometimes, cat scratching is just a way to get rid of your old molting claws. This is a grooming decision you might have made for yourself. Your human might want to get out the nail clippers. You will be wise to accommodate her. Think of it as bonding time.
On the really upside of all this, you may be the proud owner of a new spectacular scratching station made just for you. Check this out at How to Do Things. Talk about a happy place and you could put it right next to your own special house – call it the patio furniture if you like!
By your very nature, you are going to get into a scratching frenzy somewhere – you might as well choose to use the help your human offers. As for punishment, there really is no humane way to punish a cat. They are just being cats and rarely understand what all the fuss is about.
Your friend,
Fisher
Oh we understand, we usually just don’t care!
Oh we are so glad that the Mom decided not the declaw. There isn’t anything worse. Fisher, that is some good advice.
Have a great day.
Hey Cory, I totally understand why you might not want to use that house your human got you – it probably doesn’t have as appealing a scratching surface as the places you do scratch! Maybe the scratching surface there is horizontal and you prefer vertical scratching surfaces, or maybe there’s not enough room for you to stretch out the way you like. If your human got you scratching surfaces that satisfied your needs the way you like them (the way you scratch the furniture should offer some clues), and then make the furniture someone not as appealing anymore, with the use of sticky tape or throws or other unappealing scratching surfaces, I bet you would be more inclined to change your ways. Also make sure the new scratching surfaces are places that are totally convenient for you to scratch, not shunted off in a corner somewhere, where it is awkward for you to get to.
I watched the video again and it is great – the cats are terrific. They look so huggable. I think the key to success is your very calm and reassuring manner. See the video at http://catloverssite.info/
That was a very good site with detailed info on how to make a scratching post, I think we’ll make one too!
I have a video on my site about how I clip my cats’ claws, and clipping does help. At least when they do scratch the furniture it doesn’t do as much damage!